Sad news struck the Conservative and general political community this weekend as it heard the tragic news of the death of Peter Naglik, a committed political activist.
From the many discussions with a number of the Calgary conference attendees and from the emails I received over the weekend from friends in Ottawa, I learned how much Peter enriched and touched the lives of many of my friends and those that worked with him closely. I didn’t know Peter personally, but learning about his life, I now know that I would have been lucky to. By all accounts, Peter was a committed to his politics, witty among his friends, and fully engaged to any job he was working on.
A friend emailed to say, “Peter was an outstanding human being and impacted so many people.”
Graham Hughes
Ottawa Citizen (subscription)A longtime behind-the-scenes political operative and speech writer for the Conservative party died early yesterday in a car crash near Metcalfe.
Peter Naglik, 39, of Russell, was driving his 1995 Chrysler Concorde when it went out of control.
Police did not release his identity, but it was confirmed by Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux for whom Mr. Naglik had worked in the last federal election.
Mr. Naglik had been campaign manager for Mr. Lemieux in his Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding.
“I was honoured to have him as my campaign manager in the last election and we worked very closely together,” Mr. Lemieux said yesterday.
“He’ll be missed by me and the many people who knew him,” he said.
“He had a lot of experience, a lot of good ideas.”
Tim Powers, of Summa Strategies Canada, a government relations firm, said Mr. Naglik was “a really decent man.”
“Peter was seen as a very good writer, a really loyal friend — just a fundamentally decent human being.”
Mr. Naglik was a principal with Crestview Public Affairs, a government relations firm he had recently helped found with Mark Spiro.
“The business was going very well. I saw them (Thursday) morning and they were looking forward to the next little while because they’d just brought in some new business,” Mr. Powers said.
He added that Mr. Naglik and his partner had been working long hours in the last few days.
Mr. Powers said Mr. Naglik had worked for former Conservative MP John Reynolds and Stephen Harper when he was leader of the opposition.
Mr. Naglik had been question period co-ordinator for the Canadian Alliance, having been hired by former leader Stockwell Day in 2001.
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To read more thoughts on Peter Naglik’s passing, please visit here, here, and here.